Ascension of the Nephilim

The mercenaries arose quite early in the morning. The temple had a strange alarm clock that woke them up.

Aron wondered as he could hear a strange ringing sound that resounded loudly and woke them up.

Aron turned towards the youth who was tossing and turning and was trying to cover his ears as he tried to sleep.

"Kyros? Do you hear that?"

"Five more minutes..." Kyros answered in a very drowsy manner.

"The Temple! Somethings happening!"

"No. It's just the alarm."

"The Alarm? Something's alerting it? Are there enemies nearby?!" Aron stood up and warned his men.

Seeing the sudden misinterpretation of Aron finally aroused Kyros to wake up. He mentally turned off the alarm and cursed.

"I forgot to turn it off!" Kyros was gritting his teeth.

"Get ready for battle!" Aron told the mercenaries who were now in position.

"Bring it, Lizards!" One of the mercenaries shouted.

"No! Not that... The temple has erm... some sort of thing that wakes us up early. That's what woke me up yesterday when I fainted." Kyros made up a lie.

Yet inwardly, he was complaining. Because of that alarm, he had no choice but to let that alarm wake them up very early every day. He set it on the first day but never had any intention to follow it, but now the group has made preparations for the day.

"What an impressive temple. It really looks out for our well-being." Aron marveled as they went away.

"Alright, mercenaries. Today, we head deeper into the nest!" Aron addressed the mercenaries.

"Just like the last battle, we handle the heavy lifting and cutting while Kyros harasses our enemies. But men, if you want to be knights, then as a vassal force, it should be you protecting him and not him protecting you! Yesterday he was a young kid we picked up. But today, he is Kyros Steele!"

"Yes, my Lord!" The mercenaries began to cheer. It had been years since they were addressed as a vassal force. Now that Aron regained his confidence, the mercenaries began to treat Aron as they used to when they were slaves.

The group left the room and began their hunt.

The group went towards the path they followed before and passed the area where the Lizards ambushed them.

Kyros was looking around carefully and frowned.

"These markings..." He noticed the floors had trails of the lizards. But all of them suddenly stopped, and the trails indicated that they retreated.

"It looks like the lizards were here." Aron assessed.

"Yes. But they didn't move forward. They suddenly retreated. They didn't bother to follow us..." Kyros wondered.

"Is this a problem?"

"Yes. These lizards devour their fallen to level up. I don't understand why they wouldn't chase us..." Kyros frowned.

"Well, let's be more careful! Men, upfront!"

"Wait... Allow me. I have another ace up my sleeve. This sword isn't a regular sword. My family purchased it at great costs. We believed this to be a wise investment, but we encountered so much problem that we never got to show the true potential of this sword." Kyros raised his sword.

Kyros's shadow suddenly moved. It wasn't the sword that was powering the shadows but his cloak. Because of the armor, his dark cloak was hidden underneath, and it didn't show the strange changes that were powering the shadow.

The shadow moved towards the darkness and disappeared into the distance.

"What was that?" Aron was amazed at what he saw.

"Shadow Scout." Kyros mentioned a skill he knew some of the Skeletons and Undead practitioners used in the war.

"Shadow scout?"

"Yes. This sword is dark. It can create a shadow scout that can find enemies ahead." Kyros explained.

Of course, the shadow that was sent out wasn't a shadow scout.

The Shadow Familiar is a stronger dark art that can create a sentient shadow controlled by the caster. The Shadow Scout skill can only detect how many living creatures there were within the scope of it's sight.

But the Shadow Familiar can see and hear the objects in front. It can even fight.

Kyros was using the power of his shadow to look beyond the area ahead. This wasn't a mindless scout but a being controlled by Kyros.

"Let's slowly follow." Kyros explained as he led the group forward.

Aron was looking in amazement at what he saw.

"My brother got quite a son here..." He was amazed.

Kyros was walking, but his concentration was on his shadow that had scouted a long way ahead.

"Darkness...." Kyros murmured.

"What?" Aron asked.

"Darkness... The Lizards aren't the only creatures here. Think about it... How can the lizards live here for so long? Why appear now? Why haven't there been any appearance of the lizards outside? Even the townsfolk who lived nearby never saw it."

"Right... This means they all appeared when the earthquake occurred. Something must have happened when that earthquake happened. It might have opened the secret chambers of this mountain!"

"Exactly." Kyros answered. He heard that an earthquake occurred from the mercenaries. By counting the days, Kyros realized that it must have been the time when he reincarnated.

"Now think about this. If there are lizards inside the cave, how could it survive? What food source did it feed on? They can't survive without meat."

"You mean... there's more down here?"

"Yes! That's why they didn't chase us! They were scouting! They were looking for a new source of food. But at the same time, these lizards can't send out more of them to chase us. They need to guard themselves..."

"Against what?"

"That is the question. What lives down here apart from the lizard? We have to be more careful." Kyros addressed.

"Nephew... How old are you exactly? You seemed so learned and smart."

"My family invested in my education when I was younger. I also drank a lot of milk and was thought by a scholar named Blippi when I was young."

"Blippi?" Calaminus suddenly murmured.

"I don't know. I was just making things up." Kyros answered Calaminus mentally.

"Wow. I'm really starting to infect you with this strangeness of mine."

"Hrm? I can sense it! What is that?" Kyros noticed another group of strange creatures.

A Shadow Scout would have only detected life. The creature seemed to have the same strength and life force as the Lizards, but this creature was larger and slower.

"Stonic Creatures! That's a Golem!" Kyros recognized the creature.

"Golems? Are they natural made, or magic made?" Calaminus wondered. One of the many things that he discussed with Kyros was the basic explanation of all the creatures and how they came to be. Although Calaminus couldn't give them a full detail of the bestiary, Kyros now understood how golems came to be.

"Golems. We have golems..." Kyros suddenly told Aron and the group.

"Golems? How is that possible? Aren't golems summoned by mages? Are there mages in here?" Aron was shocked.

"Not necessarily. Golems are made by several things. The ones that mages summon are a replication of their will. But in a place like this, where darkness gathered, it's possible for the souls of the fallen that seeped into the ground to create life and movement. Especially if those souls are mages themselves." Kyros explained.

"There's such a thing?"

"Yes. This means the depths of this mountain must have had a great battle. Because one dead mage couldn't create this many." Kyros deduced.

"What do we do?" One of the mercenaries asked.

"It looks like the lizard retreated because we killed many, and they were afraid there would be more of us who could kill them. Right now, the golems are the ones scouting... Interesting... It seemed that an underground ecology is buried inside this mountain." Kyros explained.

"So it's dangerous if we proceed?"

"The place my scout went should be safe. I have a plan. You guys wait here. I lead the golems here, and we ambush it." Kyros smiled.

"Lead it here?"

"We have to level up, don't we? Uncle, when will the other members go here? We should try to capture more of these creatures but save the experience when everyone is here. We only take what we need to be strong enough to fight these creatures."

"They would probably reach here within four days. It might be faster since they think I'm in danger."

"Then we have four days to prepare this. The more people we have, the easier it is to explore and conquer here and get enough experience from the temple before handing it to the empire."

"My brother should bring a message talisman that can contact the rest of the family. We can use that to have everyone go here. Hopefully, this temple will last long enough to give the family at least a single level up." Aron clenched his fist.

Kyros tried to hide his smile. He knew that the temple won't run out of means to grant them experience. He planned to simply stop the feature and run the Temple Off Protocol to make it look like the temple had no energy.

"Still... If we could level up even by one or two levels for all family members, it would be very beneficial already. Let's plan for our ambush now. It's time to play with rocks."